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Ted Martin’s Top 10 Traits of the Entrepreneur 1. Have people you know and trust sincerely tell you to go for it because they believe you could do it. 2. Talk to objective business advisors who will give you good advice upfront and along the way. 3. Learn~Understand~Know when the business is supposed to be profitable before you start it. 4. Make sure you are the type of person who has experience getting past brick walls (doesn’t matter if you go over, around or through). 5. Go in with a size plan. If you Go Big, is it Go Big at all costs? e.g., MarchFirst or Martin Partners? 6. Fear must be your friend. If fear is your enemy, you’re not meant to be an entrepreneur. –You can’t be afraid to fail. –“Only the paranoid survive.” 7. Ambiguity is your friend. If everything needs to be orderly all the time, you’re probably not meant to be an entrepreneur. 8. You are so passionate about your business plan that you can’t turn off the adrenaline. –Adrenaline-interrupted sleep versus stress-interrupted sleep. 9. Don’t expect to be objective if your entrepreneurial effort is failing. –You will often beat the dead horse. –Could be market timing. 10. If you have the “bug”, you’ll do it again. –Don’t do it again if it almost killed you. –Don’t do it again if it wasn’t fun.